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They were accompanied by her younger sister, Julie Christian, and her sister's partner, Aramis Salter.

Leighton Davies, QC, prosecuting, said Warren, a member of the Fylde International Sand Yacht Club, was one of 12 competitors involved in a Saturday afternoon race across a public beach.

"Her younger son was walking to the side and was narrowly missed," he said. "He witnessed the sudden flash of horror of what happened to his mother, as did his brother, Carol Cruz's sister and her boyfriend, who were also walking back to the dunes from the sea."

Warren, a lorry driver, from Doncaster, South Yorks, had been sailing sand yachts for 30 years. At the time of the collision he was on the second lap of the race.

With the wind behind him, his craft, which weighed 37 stone with him on board, was sailing at 40mph to 45mph.

Miss Christian said she had not seen any signs warning people about the race.

She wept as she told how they were heading towards the dunes from the shoreline.

"Carol moved forward and put her arms around the boys in front of us," she said.

"Aramis screamed very loudly and I looked to the front and I saw a big sand yacht rapidly moving and then there was a bang. I realised my sister was being dragged on the sand yacht. The [craft] seemed to rotate and come to a stop with my sister on the axle.

"Her legs were hanging on from a thread of bone. I started screaming.

"I was running around in circles shouting to my sister that she would be OK. I saw my sister looking at her legs and she screamed. I saw her look from one boy to the other."

Mr Davies said the impact was so powerful that her legs were "virtually amputated" just above the ankles.

"Her back was then lashed by a securing wire which runs from the mast of the yacht to the offside axle," he said.

Her body was carried along on the hull until the yacht came to a halt. Mrs Cruz was still conscious but fading fast.

Mr Davies said the incident had been "an accident waiting to happen".

It was questionable that racing on such a popular beach should have been organised by the club and authorised by the local authority.

However, the "ultimate" responsibility for Mrs Cruz's death lay with the defendant. "He was so preoccupied with speed that it didn't come into his head to give any proper thought to safety," he said.